In pursuit of success and meaning: Sea founder shares his journey

Having gone through the pains of entrepreneurship, Forrest Li gives some advice to those eyeing the same route.

Claudia Chong

Published Mon, Aug 3, 2020 · 09:50 PM

THE founder of one of South-east Asia's most well-known tech companies had an unconventional way of pumping up his confidence level.

Back before he became the CEO and chairman of consumer internet firm Sea, Forrest Li was yet another graduate student at Stanford's business school. As fate would have it, he was also among the audience when Steve Jobs gave his now-famous 2005 commencement speech and told graduates: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

For months afterwards, Mr Li replayed the speech on YouTube two to three times a day to gather the courage to turn his back on the corporate world and become an entrepreneur.

"The spirit of that speech was that you should do what you're really passionate about ... and eventually when you look back, you will see that all your experiences can be connected to your success today," Mr Li shared during a virtual forum session organised by The Straits Times and The Business Times. The Cutting Edge forum, which is sponsored by property group GuocoLand, spotlights renowned global expert…